Muncie man accused of battering woman, 7-year-old boy

MUNCIE, Ind. – A Muncie man awaiting trial on allegations he threatened to kill an ex-girlfriend with a rifle now stands accused of battering a woman and her seven-year-old son.

Jacob Allen Delong, 27, was arrested late Tuesday afternoon, preliminarily charged with domestic battery resulting in bodily injury to a person less than 14 years old, domestic battery in the presence of a child and two counts of strangulation.

In a report, Amy Kesler, a city police investigator, wrote that the violence took place in a South Franklin Street residence on Jan. 23.

City police that day were called to the home Delong apparently shared with the woman, and were told the Muncie man “was intoxicated and had ransacked the house.”

The woman’s son later told another family member – who alerted police – that Delong had attacked him when the child tried to intervene after Delong pulled his mother’s hair and repeatedly punched her in the stomach.

The boy said he was trying “to help his mom” when Delong lifted him by his arm, slammed him onto a bed, placed his hand around the child’s throat and struck him in the face.

The young accuser said he “had trouble breathing and was very scared.”

Kesler reported that on a recording of a 911 call made during the Jan. 23 incident, what might be a child’s voice could be heard screaming, “Get off of her!”

Interviewed Tuesday, the child’s mother acknowledged Delong had picked up her son by his arm. She also said the Muncie man had “smacked her in the face, pulled her hair and strangled her to the point she had trouble breathing.”

Also interviewed Tuesday, Delong said he had grabbed the child because he involved himself in an “adult” argument.

He denied choking either accuser, insisting he had instead “held them by the collar(s) of (their shirts).”

Delong – being held in the Delaware County jail on Wednesday under a $20,000 bond – is set to stand trial April 15 in Delaware Circuit Court 3 on charges of intimidation, criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon, pointing a firearm and attempted residential entry.

In that case, he is accused of forcing his way into an ex-girlfriend’s Muncie home on Aug. 17 and threatening to kill her and her current boyfriend with a .22-caliber rifle, which he fired at least three times.

He was released from the jail in that case after posting a $10,000 bond..

Douglas Walker is a news reporter at The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or at dwalker@muncie.gannett.com.